Mysteriousness of the Ring of Brodgar: Hitchhiking the Orkney Islands
For five weeks I stayed with a family of five in exchange to work on a small organic farm operated by a married couple up around the tiny village of Scourie, an hour not of Ullapool. With my weekends free I would cycle, hike, and even hitchhike around the Highlands.
The weekend before hitchhiking up to the Orkney Island, I went hiking up a nearby mountain called Ben Stack. On the way down I injured my left knee. I had to hobble 12 miles back to the house where I was staying, arriving just as they were picking up the phone to organize a search party.
The following weekend I had three choices: rest, hitchhike to the hospital in Inverness, or to continue with a rare opportunity to visit the Orkney Islands. For a travel addict, that’s an easy decision. So that Friday when I was finished with my work on the farm, I hitchhiked 3 hours up to Thurso to catch the ferry to the main Orkney island.
After the ferry ride I hitched around, visiting 5000 year old neolithic archaeological sites of Skara Brae, the Maeshowe tomb, the Standing Stones of Stenness, and the Ring of Brodgar. This is an area full of human history. And the people of the Orkneys now are incredibly friendly. Even a couple rides I had hitched had no problem taking me anywhere around the island I wanted to go.
The one site that left the most lasting impression on me was the Ring of Brodgar. A monolithic site built around 5000 years ago.
Once with 60 stones places in a circle, is now down to 27 stones intact and upright. The diameter of the ring is 340 feet (103.6 metres). It’s the third largest stone circle in the British Isles and covers an area of 90,790 square feet (8,435 square metres), outdone by only the outer ring of stones at Avebury and the Greater Ring at Stanton Drew in England.
So, why is the Ring of Brodgar so mysterious?
After hobbling around the main island for a day in a half, I wanted to go back to the Ring of Brodgar. I just wanted a place to relax my injured knee and enjoy the sunshine. I spent several hours there, snapped a few photos and really just sat in peace, absorbing the energy of the place while a few number of tourist sized themselves up next to the stones.
At the time I visited the Orkney Islands, I had been in Scotland for over a month and had an average wait time of 10–15 minutes until someone gave me a ride. I never needed to walk down the road to reach another road that could increase my chance on a ride. But finally my lucky streak ended and I had to walk the whole way back to the ferry in Stromness. That entire walk away from the isthmus that the Ring of Brodgar sits on, I had zero pain in my knee. As it got smaller in the distance as the pinkish orange sky reflected on the water, I still felt no pain. At the very moment it disappeared into the distance and darkness, the knee pain came back several fold, severely hobbling me again. Was it the magical powers of one of the oldest human archaeological sites in the world? Did this site provide healing powers to the ones who built and understood it? So many questions with no concrete answers.
If you’re in Scotland, I highly recommend visiting the islands. Maybe you’ll have a story to write about, too.
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